Egypt
St. Catherine
Granite peaks where Moses may have stood, a burning bush still growing behind monastery walls.
Granite peaks rise in jagged ridges above a valley where the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery on Earth sits behind fortress walls. The air is thin, dry and cold at night. Inside the compound, the bush tradition names as the Burning Bush still grows beside a sixth-century chapel, its roots tangled into stone Justinian's masons laid.
St Catherine's was built between 548 and 565 CE on Justinian's orders at the foot of Mount Sinai, revered in the Abrahamic traditions as the mountain of the Ten Commandments. Its library — one of the world's oldest in continuous operation — holds over three thousand manuscripts and preserved the Codex Sinaiticus, among the earliest near-complete Christian Bibles. The pre-dawn summit hike climbs to 2,285 metres by the Steps of Repentance, 3,750 stones laid by monks, or by the longer camel path.
Friends
Climb the steps together in the dark, take sunrise on the summit, and come down to a Bedouin breakfast in the village.
- The monastery has been continuously inhabited for seventeen centuries — its library is celebrated worldwide.
- The bush in the garden is a Rubus sanctus, and the monks consider it the original from scripture.
- The 3,750 steps take two to three hours of steady climbing, timed to reach the summit for sunrise.
- The St Catherine Protectorate spreads 4,350 square kilometres of high desert around the peaks.
Sheikh Mousa's Bedouin camp in the village lays the table — eggs and fresh bread at breakfast, grilled meats and vegetable stews after the trek.
On the pre-dawn climb, Jabaliya guides brew strong sage tea on charcoal at the rest stations.
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